Limp Wrist Manhandles Hardcore Punk

Ten years after they started, all-gay, all-straight-edge and all-hardcore band Limp Wrist is reactivated, rejuvenated and rededicated to the most corrosively potent fusion of sexuality and punk since (a) Gary Floyd of the Dicks' "Saturday Night at the Bookstore" and (b) Mukilteo Fairies' "Queer Enough For You?" Up front is Martin Sorrondeguy, the polymath (musician, filmmaker, onetime Maximum Rock N Roll zine distribution coordinator) whose band Los Crudos started in Chicago and made revolutionary connections with punks across Latin America before finishing off in 1998. Along the way, they collided head-on with people who couldn't deal with Latinos playing punk with songs like "We're That Spic Band," which had a universally understandable chorus of "BULLSHIT!" After a short break, Sorrondeguy — who'd come out during Crudos and later moved to Orange County with his boyfriend — recruited for Limp Wrist and started writing songs like "I Love Hardcore Boys (I Love Boys Hardcore)," "Recruiting Time" and "Limp Wrist vs. Dr. Laura." (Trust us, they won that one: "Now we have a problem with you — you're not even a real doctor!" and then rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrip into "WATCH OUT! WE'RE PISSED!") This is annihilating stuff — screaming high-speed punk like Void or GISM — done by guys whose hearts probably beat with that same classic 1-2-1-2-1-2 hardcore rhythm. "I'm not a boring gay man. I'm a freak," guitarist Scott Moore told one interviewer. "I have no desire to be part of the straight world."

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